Say Nothing

“Who should be held accountable for a shared history of violence? It was a question that was dogging Northern Ireland as a whole.”

“Outrage is conditioned not by the nature of the atrocity but by the affiliation of the victim and the perpetrator. Should the state be accorded more leniency because, legally speaking, it has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force? Or, conversely, should we hold soldiers and cops to a higher standard than paramilitaries?”

Really, really incredible narrative non-fiction. Incredibly difficult to put down, and I found myself continuing to talk about this book and think about it whenever I wasn't reading it. I was pleasantly surprised by how neutral this perspective was, seeing as the IRA is quite a divisive topic, and very impressed by the breadth of 40+ years of history condensed into an easy to read, easy to follow format that stuck with me throughout the whole book.